I have been practicing mindfulness of breathing meditation half an hour 2-3 times a day since 6-8 months. After developing some ease in keeping my mind on breathing, my practice was naturally evolving towards mindfulness of mind and mindfulness of mindfulness. SO then I started looking for shamata guidelines, and found most suiting guidence in Alan Wallace's Attention revolution. right now I am at stage 5-6 of shamata. My mind instantly settles into mindfulness of breath. After like 10 minutes it naturally goes to mindfulness of mind, and then after 10 minutes it evolves into mindfulness of mindfulness. In some really awesome meditation sessions I do get a one or a half second glimpse of non-dual mind.

So from this background I have a few questions about practice and theory of Buddhist meditation, specially dzogchen, since this particular shamata path that is naturally suiting me is AFAIK dzogchen.

1. Are there any other books on dzogchen shamata, or general shamata which I can further read, apart from alan wallace's. Any practice that accelerates it.

2. Where do the jhanas lie in this practice map?

2. Is there any dzogchen Vipassana? till now I havent seen any such thing. The best introduction to Vipassana tat I have read uptil now was sixteen stages of insight by Phra Dhamma Theerarach Mahamuni

3. I have read that after attaining decent stability of mind, a sign appears which should be the focus of attention. Any description of when and how it happens, and what to do next? I have seen that when I attain perfect mindfulness of mindfulness, and then I focus my mind on lets say blue lights (I had been given this practice by a sufi master long time ago, but I wasent able to sustain my mind on it back then), my mind instantly goes into non-dual state and then keeps on coming and going. But I am not able to sustain it as of yet.

4. Are there any guidelines for accelerating non-dual consciousness after developing non-conceptual one.

5. Any Tibetan energy work? I have been doing Terry Dun's Flying Phoenix Chi kung from DVD. uptil now its quite good for physical/emotional/mental health.

6. Trekcho/Togal, any description/book that explains practices and results in detail. I understand these things cant be practiced without a teacher. But I just want to read out of curiousity. SInce I 've got a reasonable knowledge of Sufi path, I wanted to see what exactly are the dzogchen practices and outcomes for/after attaining non-dual consciousness.

2. Is there any dzogchen Vipassana? till now I havent seen any such thing. The best introduction to Vipassana that I have read uptil now was sixteen stages of insight by Phra Dhamma Theerarach Mahamuni

If I had the time and money to travel I would go study with this man Acharya Mahayogi Sridhar Rana Rinpoche. I prefer study in tandem with meditation, with simplicity in both. The really complicated meditations and text go over my head and I end up falling asleep. My primary practice in meditation comes from SN Goenka's camp. I found because of my practice in meditation Vajrayana visualization was much easier and working with the deities reminded me of the use of body sensation both on the skin and inside the body used by vipassana meditators. In Satipatthana meditation we actually pierce the body with awareness and feel the sensations of organs, the inner workings of the body. When I practice deity visualization it reminded me of the Satipatthana method but no one would talk about it with me. I found this man Acharya Mahayogi Sridhar Rana actually goes into it and I really would love to study and meditate with him. My favorite Nana Vipassana stage site and I like yours too Nana Vipassanas

Vajrayana Vipassyana

Within Buddhist Tantra, there are four classes of Tantra according to the New School and six classes of Tantra according to the Prachina Sampradaya (Old School). According to the New School, they are Kriya Tantra, Charya Tantra, Yoga Tantra and Anuttara Tantra. The Old School divides the Anuttara into Maha, Anu and Ati. We cannot go into explanations of all these types in this short essay but we will take up deities of the Anuttara Tantra and see how Samatha / Vipassyana is practiced. The deities used in Anuttara Tantra are Hevajra, Kalachakra, Chakrasambhara, Vajra Bhairava, Mahamaya etc. First of all, they are called Anuttara because there are none higher than these or higher practices than these. This is the only type of meditation which can give Enlightenment in one lifetime. The actual meditation of each of these deities varies in details but they all have certain common similarities. It is not possible to give their detailed practice here because of lack of space and one must also have received initiations in order to get this information.

Mind and mental events are concepts, mere postulations within the three realms of samsara Longchenpa .... A link to my Garden, Art and Foodie blog Scratch Living

Hi Shazan, I recently pointed to this incredible resource on another thread- but it is also perfect for your personal search: this is a series of transcribed teachings on View Meditation and Action given by Shenpen Dawa Rinpoche in 2012. He speaks perfect English so they are direct, not filtered through a translator. They focus on Shamatha in the context of Maha Anu and Ati Yogas (Ati Yoga = Dzogchen) I am sure you will find this a great resource for further meditations. And the best part is, they are complete and free at this link: http://www.tersar.org/?page_id=2360

Contentment is the ultimate wealth;Detachment is the final happiness. ~Sri Saraha

I have been practicing mindfulness of breathing meditation half an hour 2-3 times a day since 6-8 months. After developing some ease in keeping my mind on breathing, my practice was naturally evolving towards mindfulness of mind and mindfulness of mindfulness. SO then I started looking for shamata guidelines, and found most suiting guidence in Alan Wallace's Attention revolution. right now I am at stage 5-6 of shamata. My mind instantly settles into mindfulness of breath. After like 10 minutes it naturally goes to mindfulness of mind, and then after 10 minutes it evolves into mindfulness of mindfulness. In some really awesome meditation sessions I do get a one or a half second glimpse of non-dual mind.

3. I have read that after attaining decent stability of mind, a sign appears which should be the focus of attention. Any description of when and how it happens, and what to do next? I have seen that when I attain perfect mindfulness of mindfulness, and then I focus my mind on lets say blue lights (I had been given this practice by a sufi master long time ago, but I wasent able to sustain my mind on it back then), my mind instantly goes into non-dual state and then keeps on coming and going. But I am not able to sustain it as of yet.

Thanks for your time, in advance

Hi Shazan.Remember that allan wallace describes each stage by saying how much time and with wich quality of attention you can remain in meditation. So if you keep practicing for half an hour sessions is hard to know in witch stage you are (and i wouldnt even worry about that). Also i do belive that the passing from one method to another, for example, mindfullness of breathing to mindfulness of the space of the mind and whatever arises in it should be conscious. Another way of saying it is be sure that you are the one who shifts the focus and not the "monkey mind". This is just my opinion =)

I belive that signs are related to the mindfulness of breathing practice. So if you are practicing mindfulness of mind or awareness of awareness this is not important.